Interview with the Nurses

Helping people in need can some times be complicated, especially when it’s in Africa. But when nurses Amanda Burcher and Jessica Chamberlain found out about the Canada Africa Community Health Alliance, or CACHA, they jumped at the chance to get involved. CACHA is a humanitarian organization that provides medical care, knowledge, and support to remote African communities. CACHA orchestrates missions to Africa 20 times each year.

As a non-profit, CACHA requires its volunteer nurses to pay for their own expenses, which can total anywhere between $3,500-$5,000 (expenses include flight, food and accommodation, and medical supplies). To raise funds for this purpose, Burcher and Chamberlain, who are nurses at Queensway Carlton Hospital, approached Gateway. “We found Gateway online and after considering others,” explains Burcher, “we chose Gateway because their pricing is competitive and the production process is so simple. Unlike other companies out there we were able to submit recipes online through one form. The other companies would have required all our group members to submit separately, which would have been unworkable.”

Gateway’s fundraising cookbooks are part of an overall fundraising campaign designed to raise funds for their mission, this one destined for Ukerewe Island in Tanzania in April of 2012. “We’re holding a pub night, where we’ll sell more books. We’ve posted information on Facebook and Twitter and we’re sending books to friends and family. The books look great. We sold over a hundred pre-orders and after receiving them we sold another fifty.”

To purchase Amanda and Jessica’s Cookbook, email at amburcher@gmail.com. The cookbook is a unique collection of recipes typically found at a potluck dinner called “Potluck Stat – Nurses for Tanzania”.

For more on CACHA, visit www.cacha.ca.